LEANDER, Texas — Voters in Leander will decide Saturday whether to end a 37-year relationship with Austin-area transit agency Capital Metro in a Saturday election, which could halt commuter rail service to the community.
Leander is the northernmost stop on the CapMetro Red Line, a 32-mile, nine-station system served by Stadler Rail diesel multiple-unit trainsets. KUT Radio reports that the 1% sales tax that funds Leander’s participation in CapMetro rail, bus, and local on-demand transit is generating an increasing amount of money in the booming community, which grew from 26,521 in the 2010 census to 59,202 in 2020. At the same time, ridership is slumping, leading opponents to seek to end the agreement.
The sales tax generated $9.8 million in 2021, while ridership on all CapMetro services in Leander fell from 635 average daily boardings in 2019 to about 130 in the fall of 2021, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report commissioned by the Leander City Council.
Early voting on the ballot initiative has already begun.
Like other commenters have said, TOD is what’s needed here. Austin is just one massive suburban style development, making driving the most attractive option, unfortunately. I have family in Austin and it’s miserable having to drive everywhere. Car-centric infrastructure is just plain ugly and unstainable, as well as depressing. Sprawl=more development=more blacktop=hotter land. And from a financial standpoint, subsidizing drivers and car infrastructure is way more expensive than subsiding this line would ever be.
I recommend watching the ‘Not Just Bikes’ Youtube channel. It really highlights how unsustainable, and how hostile our suburban style developments are to lower income residents. Owning a car does not equal freedom, it’s just higher costs all around.
Public transit and particularly rail transit works best in cities and their suburbs that where the towns and streets were laid out before the invention of the automobile. Think narrow and deep city lots, which give many houses per block and blocks spaced further apart. And it was, or still is, a short walk down the block to catch the streetcar at the cross street. Post WW II housing on the other hand is built upon rectangular and trapezoidal lots along streets which curve and even meander inside a walled and restricted entry subdivision. And we expect homeowners to walk out through the subdivision’s maze of streets to catch a bus along the four lane, walled (think concrete moat) thoroughfare?
Yes, transit orientated development (commercial and residential) ideally built simultaneously along with the light and/or commuter rail will establish a base rail user group.
Three Words: Transit Orient Development
There is a huge empty parcel of land right next to the train station and park-n’-ride lot, develop it for medium-density walkable mix-use development and create a actual community center for this small suburban community. They could also build a second station on the southside of town and build more transit-oriented development on more undeveloped land beside the railroad.
BENJAMIN – Three Words: You’re Absolutely Correct.
Look at the development around METRA stations, like Glenview and Glen.
Just tell the people it will cost them 100 times as much to rejoin in the future…that might swing the vote enough to stay in the service.
Leander needs to encourage more ridership then, based on their population more than doubling in 10 years. What will the next 10 years bring to Leander? Dump the transit and see what happens when those that used to ride but gave it up during the pandemic want to ride again. How about all those new residents that after living there a while begin to question why the town dissolved the service in 2022 as they realize there was an alternative to sitting in traffic. The Board needs to take baby steps and prepare for fallout. Not as easy or cheap to go back after dumping it.
Good points Mark (above) and Gerald (below). I might point out, though, Mark, a point contrary to yours. Suburbanites are going to sit in traffic with or without this train. With or without this train, deteriorated suburban roads will carry more and more cars. The train may provide an essential transit service to some people but it won’t ease growing traffic congestion. Traffic-wise, there’s no difference as between 100.0% travel by auto, or 99.9% travel by auto.
When costs keep going up, pensions need to be paid, and ridership hovers at 30% to 40% of pre-COVID, suburban voters will say Enough Is Enough, We’re Outta Here! What starts in the suburbs will spread to the urban core – there’s just no money.
Public Transportation – meaning everything from the local paratransit wheelchair van up to Delta Airlines and everything in between – only exists because of COVID monopoly money. Which isn’t going to be there two years from now.
I read about the mayor of a major city bragging he balanced his budget. Reading deeper into the article, 25% of the “revenue” was federal COVID money. Good luck next year and the year after. America is headed toward bankruptcy. It’s all a house of cards. When the house of cars collapses, transit won’t be spared. Nor will highways be spared. With the costs of steel and concrete, skilled labor and diesel fuel for construction equipment all skyrocketing, highway departments nationwide will have to cut their freeway projects in half. When a $2 Billion freeway interchange instead costs $4 to $5 Billion, something’s got to give.
Oh, and to be fair, a program that absolutely needs to go away is Essential Air Services. As this forum’s Number One aviation fan and Number One advocate of air travel, I must admit I’ve learned something reading these forum pages. Before reading your comments, I was ignorant about Essential Air Services. Thanks to you people posting on these pages, I’m not no longer so stupid. When I’m at the Nashville Airport seeing a six-seater loading for Owensboro, Kentucky, I now know that the subsidy for that flight makes Amtrak look cheap in comparison.
Good point, Mr. Landey – and one might ask: How many people actually boarded the “Essential” six-seater you mentioned? Can anyone provide info on distance, fares and per-passenger subsidy?